Are you obsessed? Are you living NOW?

I practice Zen, and one of the primary teachings in Zen is the supreme importance of â€śliving in the momentâ€?. Please understand that â€śnowâ€? is all you have. Your time is a constant unfolding of â€śnowâ€?; the past is only memories of what was. The future is only our dreams of what we want or believe it will be. You only have â€śnowâ€?. Problem is most people do not even remotely live in the moment. They spend most of their time mulling over what was, or what they hope to be, and spend little of their precious time truly enjoying the moment to moment unfolding of this beautiful and mysterious world we live in. Studies show the average persons thoughts are about 90% comprised of WHAT THEY THOUGHT ABOUT THE DAY BEFORE, AND THE DAY PREVIOUS TO THAT, AND SO ONâ€”WOW! No wonder so few are truly happyâ€¦â€¦..

When you shift you focus on being fully aware and spending your time fully involved with your day to day, moment to moment small pieces of eternity, you slowly learn to fully enjoy life because eventually the realization sets in the right NOW is all you have and all you will ever have. It spurs you to not waste time, and to live impeccably. And of course it also drives you to find ways to make NOW more enjoyable.

While the statements made above apply to everyone, I think itâ€™s especially relevant for bodybuilders. Why? Because you will be hard-pressed to find another group of people that spend as much time obsessing about their sport/lives and spend as much time living for tomorrow. Why are they living for tomorrow? Because they are not satisfied with how they look. While it is healthy to constantly strive for improvement, it is unhealthy to be constantly frustrated with life NOW. And now is what you haveâ€¦..all you have. Not true? Well 6 months from now, it will again be NOW. And the truth is despite all your progress, you will still want to achieve the next level, and as long as you are truly dissatisfied with how you look, you will be projecting into the future fully believing that you will finally be happy whenâ€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.

By far the biggest reasons bodybuilders are dissatisfied with their physiqueâ€™s are:

They are too damn fat!!!

They have a marginal strength base, which leaves themâ€¦.wellâ€¦..small.

They obsess about their training.

Here are a few solutions to these so vary common problems, and in case you are wondering, this comes from a voice of experience. I used to TOTALLY obsess about my training, used to walk around too damn fat because I was â€śbulkingâ€? and was frustrated because I was way too weak.

Being too fat is good for me, bad for you. Why do I say this? Because 75-80% of those that come to me seeking personal training come to me with their #1 priority being to lose the excess bodyfat. Many of these guys havenâ€™t seen their abs in YEARS because they are not happy with their size and strength levels, so they eat like pigs and look like them in some cases. And they are bodybuilders who are embarrassed to take off their T-shirts. Which in my mind, pretty much disqualifies them from being a bodybuilder. GET LEAN, and STAY lean. Your â€śbulkingâ€? cycles should not be called â€śbulking upâ€?, but â€śmuscling upâ€?. A big percentage of the guys reading this are nodding their heads and thinking yup, heâ€™s right, maybe after I gain 10 more pounds Iâ€™ll do itâ€¦â€¦â€¦

In the mean time, the guys that weigh as 20-50 pounds LESS than fatso, look WAY bigger, and can take off their shirt with a big grin on their faces. If it is done right you can add lots of muscle while staying relatively lean. No, not contest ready lean. But damn sure lean enough to be comfy with your shirt off. The lean guy is much more likely to be enjoying NOW than the fat guy who is going to get lean â€śone dayâ€?.

Most lifters are way dissatisfied with their strength. The two biggest factors at play here are a lousy diet, and always training to ensure â€ścomplete developmentâ€?. That leads them to do so damn many lifts and so much volume that instead of getting â€ścomplete developmentâ€? they get very little progress instead. Until you are quite advanced, you should be seeing progress on pretty much every lift, almost every time you hit the gym. If you are not, you are overtraining or/and under-eatingâ€¦..period.

Being obsessed with anything hinders progress. It doesnâ€™t make it better. You will grow at a rate your body will grow at when you have the diet and training factors in place that are right for you. Thinking about bodybuilding 16 hours a day, and going over all the intricacies and trivial details in your head until you are ready to pop is just not needed. And it tends to only slow one down by stressing them and leading one to bounce from one training/diet modality to the next. Usually to the point where progress suffers. Study all you can without it consuming you, execute flawlessly in the gym and at the dinner tableâ€¦.and detach from it.

I Also Try to follow the Zen Ways, however I quite often get caught up in lifting, or studing about excersise and nutrition. It seems lately all I have been doing is coming home from work and sitting at the computer reading threads all night long.

I think its time to play a game of chess with my son, and take a break from all the reading. It will still be there tomorow.

I agree mostly with what you are saying all the way till the living for the moment,
I know you know, but I like to look at the consequences called the aftermoments, kids, communicables, jail terms,my two wives meeting each other, and so on, j/k.

I look ahead and plan but have fun getting there too.

that is exactly why YOU are gonna show danyeeelleessonnnn the way zen masterson.

I agree to a point with living for now. I say that a lot to my friends when they don't feel like going out or whatever. I give them the "you could die tomorrow and your last night in this world is you going to bed at 10"

But at the same time if you want that "now" in 3 months time to be sweet you better plan ahead. Zen is good and all but when it was thought up the world was a much different place and responsibilities were nill. Today you constantly have to worry about tomorrow, especially with $$$$. If you wanna take that trip with the family to Disney in August you damn well better think about it and start saving the cash. You might get divorce papers if when the time comes and you tell the wife "sorry sweetie you know that motorcycle I bought 2 months back, that was the money I saved for the trip, I was being Zen baby" LOL

In today's world you can live for "now" about 2 weeks out of the year. The rest of the time is spent planning for the two weeks. I also find that having goals and a setting a path to things helps you achieve more.

Knowing what you want tomorrow will ultimately lead to a better more productive today. It gives us a feeling of self worth and accomplishment when we feel like we've done something to make tomorrow easier to run smoothly.

Thanks, IA, as always, your posts get me thinking. I spend too much time thinking about "what I'm going to do". As much as I get stressed when I get home and the house is a mess and the kids are running around screaming, I calm myself by remembering that one day I'll miss the mess, the toys and the screaming, then I get down on the floor and play!

In today's world you can live for "now" about 2 weeks out of the year. The rest of the time is spent planning for the two weeks. I also find that having goals and a setting a path to things helps you achieve more.

Knowing what you want tomorrow will ultimately lead to a better more productive today. It gives us a feeling of self worth and accomplishment when we feel like we've done something to make tomorrow easier to run smoothly.

Living in the moment does not negate planning for the future and doing all the "right things" today to make tommorrow better. Living in the NOW means that you are fully aware and making all the right decisions. But it REALLY means that you are not living for tommorow, and are fully enjoying today.

If my life was all about only "living" for two weeks out of the year, I'd kill myself. I live for every single day. You nmissed the point that each and every day, each little chunk of NOW is all we have.

In general, I'm happy how I look, but never satisfied....I'm always trying to get bigger, no matter what.....so that in itself is just something that I have to learn to deal with, not that I don't like my body....its' just that mental aspect...

I keep thinking though that it would be a hell of a lot easier to just simply maintane my current size and weight....that alone would take the "never satisfied" feeling away...and I could take more time to do other things in my life that could use more helping out...

And I might just have to do that as I have a busy ass year ahead of me...

This is a philosophy of life that I also have come to adapt over the past several years..The "OK what can we do about it now" is extremely helpful not only in BB,but business, and life in general.Years ago I had read some of the published works of Depak Chopra, and have found much of his philosophy very much in accord on how I live...coming to the age of 40 (this year) being married for 12 years, and having a daughter that will be in middle school next year really makes one reflect on what is truley important in life, and what is not.

I beleive in enjoying each day you are given! But to forget the past and not think of the future is a crock IMO. Not knocking you IA by no means, but this is what i believe. Jminis had a pretty good post IMO. I have to plan for the future..............I have two young kids! And I will never forget the joy they have brought me!